Opportunities for Students

Harvard Radcliffe Institute is one of the world’s leading centers for interdisciplinary exploration. We bring students, scholars, artists, and practitioners together to pursue curiosity-driven research, expand human understanding, and grapple with questions that demand insight from across disciplines.

The Institute is unique among Harvard schools: Although we do not award degrees, we offer unparalleled opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students. Harvard Radcliffe Institute provides learning and research experiences that are difficult to find in a traditional classroom setting. Radcliffe students work directly with our fellows and faculty, providing unique opportunities for mentorship, and they work across departmental boundaries, connecting with peers across the University. Harvard Radcliffe Institute enriches the Harvard student experience by fostering interdisciplinary, engaged scholarship focused on the most pressing issues of our time.

Quick Links Join the Emerging Leaders Program Fund Your Research or Project Conduct Research with Faculty & Fellows Explore Internships & Working Groups Get Leadership Experience & Training Find Student Employment at Radcliffe

Two Harvard students examining archival materials

Currently Accepting Applications

Radcliffe Engaged Student Grant Program Multidisciplinary Student Research Collaborative

Student Lunch With Matthiu Aikins

On Tuesday, May 7, at noon, join us for a student-only lunch with Matthieu Aikins, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist and author and the 2023–2024 Rita E. Hauser Fellow at Radcliffe. This is an opportunity to engage with Aikins and discuss his research, experience, and reporting from Afghanistan and the Middle East.

The discussion is capped at 22 participants and lunch will be served. Please register for the lunch by April 30, at noon.

Register

Emerging Leaders Program

The Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) is a youth leadership development program partnering local high school sophomores with current Harvard undergraduates in a mentoring relationship. Together, mentees and mentors challenge limited conceptions of who can be a leader as they build critical skills to drive positive social change. We are no longer accepting applications for the 2023–2024 academic year.

Student Spotlight: Chassidy Winestock PhD ’24

Visiting curator at Harvard Radcliffe Institute

Exhibitions make arguments in much the same way that thesis papers make arguments, says Winestock, with the artworks on display being “the primary source of your evidence for the argument you’re making.”

Justis Gordon ’24

Emerging Leaders Program mentor

“There’s no other space on Harvard’s campus that is the same as the Emerging Leaders Program. There’s so much care. There’s so much passion within the community. And it’s so inspiring and enlightening.”

Eva Frazier ’26

Emerging Leaders Program mentor and intern with the Radcliffe Community Based Student Internship program

“Education is often used as a barrier in this country, instead of an expansive opportunity.”

Sophia Scott (left) and Elyse Martin-Smith (right)

Sophia Scott ’25 and Elyse Martin-Smith ’25

Student contributors to In Their Own Voices exhibition

Scott and Martin-Smith reviewed and responded to materials from the exhibition.

Sonya Gupta AM ’24

Radcliffe Engaged Student Grantee

Gupta and her cofounder created and taught a two-part workshop series, with the goal of equipping workshop participants with tools to help improve their communities.

Ryan Doan-Nguyen ’25

Radcliffe research partner and research assistant for Queer Archives

“You’re walking through the shelves and something catches your eye that you weren’t even looking for. But it calls to you, and it ends up changing the arc of your life in ways you never would have expected.”

Sarah Yerima PhD ’26

Research assistant for Gender, Race, and Law through the Archive

“There’s a feeling from being in the archive that I don’t think you can replicate online.”

Nicole Yapp JD ’23

Research assistant for Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery initiative

Yapp worked on the Legacy of Leadership project, researching the stories of early Black graduates of Harvard and Radcliffe.

Liyanni Vazquez poses in front of the water.

Liyanni Vazquez ’24

Emerging Leaders Program mentor and intern with Old West Church through Radcliffe’s Community Based Student Internship program

“Nothing in the classroom compares to seeing how people want to create and are creating solutions to problems in real life.”

Alejandro Eduarte poses in front of the water.

Alejandro Eduarte ’23

Radcliffe Research Partner and researcher at the Schlesinger Library

“I got a sense of how much knowledge [Shere Hite] was constantly producing. ... I found a program from an opera that she attended that had notes scribbled on it about something that she wanted to do in her work. Her mind was embedded, physically, everywhere I was looking.”

Jonathan Zhang sits on a rock overlooking a forested valley

Jonathan Zhang ’23

Emerging Leaders Program mentor

“First and foremost, [ELP] is an opportunity for Harvard to branch out and think about its mission in the larger community that it serves.”

Navin Durbhakula and Camille Freedman with their faculty advisor, Sparsha Saha

Navin Durbhakula ’25 and Camille Freedman ’25

Interns with the Multidisciplinary Student Research Collaborative

Over the summer, Durbhakula and Freedman worked to create content for the Plant Futures accelerator workshop.

Kody Christiansen ’23

Radcliffe Student Advisory Board member

“At HRI, students from different Harvard schools and across an array of disciplines work together to create meaningful initiatives that not only make the school but the world at large better.”

Phoebe Suh ’22

Radcliffe Research Partner and curatorial assistant at the Schlesinger Library

“RRP really gave me an idea of what it might be like to go to grad school.”

Radcliffe Engaged Student Grant Program

The Radcliffe Engaged Student Grant Program provides $1,500 stipends per project to support the research, creative, and service work of Harvard undergraduate and graduate students on topics related to the Radcliffe Engaged focus areas. We are currently accepting applications for the summertime cycle of 2024. The deadline to apply is 11:59 PM ET on Friday, May 3.

More on the Radcliffe Engaged Student Grant Program

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Carol K. Pforzheimer Student Fellowships

Carol K. Pforzheimer Student Fellowships provide funding to Harvard undergraduates to do research in the Schlesinger Library’s collections. Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s Schlesinger Library is committed to supporting students to pursue their own research. We are no longer accepting applications for the 2023–2024 academic year. The next application cycle will open on October 28, 2024.

More on Carol K. Pforzheimer Student Fellowships

William Simmons '14, arms crossed and smiling, with the Schlesinger Library in the background

Graduate Student Fellowships

PhD candidates at all Harvard faculties who plan to finish writing their dissertation in the next academic year are invited to apply. Graduate student fellows participate in the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program by attending all weekly fellows’ talks and lunches and presenting their own work to fellows. The application for 2024–2025 is now closed. The 2025–2026 application will open on November 4, 2024.

Radcliffe Institute Public Art Competition

The Radcliffe Institute Public Art Competition (RIPAC) is opened to all undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled in a Harvard degree program. The student or design teams who submit the winning design proposal will receive an $8,000 honorarium and up to $10,000 in funding for the fabrication and installation of the work. We welcome proposals that connect the arts with the Institute’s focus areas in climate change; law, education, and justice; and legacies of slavery. Proposals that reflect Radcliffe’s unique history and institutional legacy, that center on women, gender, and society, or that draw on the Schlesinger Library’s rich collections, are also of strong interest to the review committee. We are no longer accepting applications for the 2022–2023 academic year.

Radcliffe Research Partnerships

The Radcliffe Research Partnership (RRP) program matches Harvard College students with Radcliffe fellows in a research and mentorship program. Fellows act as mentors, while students provide research assistance, acquire valuable research skills, and participate in the Institute’s rich intellectual life. We are no longer accepting applications for the 2023–2024 academic year. We expect to begin posting projects for the 2024–2025 academic year in June 2024.

Multidisciplinary Student Research Collaborators

The Multidisciplinary Student Research Collaborators (MSRC) program allows Harvard undergraduate and graduate students to work as researchers in support of Radcliffe’s private programs. MSRC students aid in the preparation of content in the lead-up to the private programs and/or contribute to the post-program publication and production of program projects and deliverables in whatever specific form(s) that entails. Applications for the 2023–2024 academic year are now open and are accepted on a rolling basis.

Law, Education, and Justice Working Groups

Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s Law, Education, and Justice (LEJ) working groups center dialogue and give students the opportunity to engage deeply and build community around important topics within LEJ. We are no longer accepting applications for the 2022–2023 academic year.

More on Law, Education, and Justice Working Groups

LEJ students gathered behind a fountain.

Radcliffe Community-Based Student Internships

The Radcliffe Community-Based Student Internship (CBSI) program matches Harvard undergraduate and graduate students with community organizations, based largely in the greater Boston area, for paid spring term internships. The program aims to foster community engagement by providing experiential learning opportunities to students that have real-world impact, while building new, meaningful relationships among community-based organizations, Harvard students, and the Institute. We are not currently accepting applications. Please check back in October 2024.

More on Community-Based Student Internships

Student Advisory Board

Student Advisory Board (SAB) members shape student-related programs and experiences and represent the Institute at their respective schools and departments. Through interdisciplinary and engaged work, SAB members collaborate with students across Harvard schools, departments, and classes to shape and share Radcliffe resources and opportunities with other Harvard students. The SAB is open to Harvard undergraduate and graduate students. We are no longer accepting applications for the 2022–2023 academic year.